Trail riding and hiking up north

We've been real busy lately with work, volunteer and team stuff. Most of that has meant dealing with large numbers of people. So yesterday Mary and I decided to have a decompression day, get away from people and out into the wilderness. There is a spot on Lake Michigan between Ludington and Manistee that is just perfect for this kind of detoxing. The beach is about 12 miles long, with hardly a soul to be seen. The hiking trails are many, varied and nearly devoid of people. In fact yesterday we did a three mile hike and didn't see anyone until we were on our way back along the beach. We also spent some time just lying on the beach all alone. Not as peaceful as it sounds because of the black flys and the high winds that made us feel like we were being sand blasted. But it was a beautiful day to just be on the beach.

Mary entering the Children of the Corn portion of our mountain bike ride

The highlight of our day was the 11 mile mountain bike ride we went on. There is a trail that loops the entire camping area. But there are also logging roads and unofficial trails that crisscross the main trail. We went off on several of those until one trail went from sand, to mud, to a 2 foot deep pond, to nothing. We went all the way to the end of the this particular trail and found ourselves in the middle of the forest, with the only way out the same way we came in. So back thru the pond, mud and sand until we found a hard packed service road that was big fun to ride on. We were actually a little surprised that we rode 11 miles. It didn't seem that far, but maybe that's because we were having so much fun. Click here for a link to the route.